The present invention relates to the disposal of surgical sponges.
Surgical procedures frequently involve the use of sponges, sometimes referred to as swabs, to absorb blood and other body fluids at the operating field, for example to permit unobstructed viewing of the region being operated upon. Before completion of the surgical procedure, all of the sponges which have been introduced into the patient""s body must have been removed. This requires that personnel in the operating room keep track of the number of sponges which have been placed in the patient""s body, and the number of sponges subsequently removed therefrom.
Standard procedures which have been developed for this purpose include those in which used sponges which have been removed from the patient""s body during surgery are counted in groups of a given number, typically five or ten sponges to a group, each counted group is placed in a container, such as a plastic bag, and before the surgical procedure has been completed, typically by suturing the incisions made during surgery, all groups of used sponges are counted to verify that all sponges which have been used are accounted for.
After a sponge has been withdrawn from the patient, it is common practice to drop or throw the sponge into a bucket, known in the art as a kick bucket, which rests on the floor at a location selected so as not to interfere with the surgical procedure. A kick bucket is typically a bucket mounted on wheels to be easily moved across the operating room floor. Buckets of this type are marketed by various companies, including Vollrath Group Inc., Gallaway, Tenn. 38036 and Blickman Health Industries, Inc., Fairlawn, N.J. 07410.
At various times during an operation, sponges will be transferred from the bucket to a storage and disposal unit constructed to permit a count of used sponges to be maintained.
One commercially available disposal system consists simply of a set of clear plastic bags each of which is intended to store five sponges of one type, such as laparotomy sponges, or ten sponges of another type, such as raytex sponges. After the given number of sponges has been placed in the bag, it is closed. The bag is transparent, so that the sponges remain visible for observation by attending physicians. Bags of this type are distributed, for example, by Sage Products Inc. of Crystal Lake, Ill. 60014.
Another commercially available system is composed of a clear plastic component provided with a plurality of pockets. Either five or ten sponges, depending on the type, can be counted into each pocket. Here again, the sponges remain visible and, at the completion of surgery, the number of pockets which have been filled with sponges can be counted to produce a sponge count. Products of this type are marketed by, for example, Kendall Healthcare Products Company, under the trade name Curityxe2x80x9d, as well as by the above-identified Sage Products Inc.
The known systems described above have a number of drawbacks. For example, because available kick buckets generally rest on the floor, it is not possible for the operating room personnel to reliably drop or toss the sponges into the kick bucket. As a result, it frequently occurs that a certain number of used sponges, contaminated with blood, will be dropped onto the operating room floor, splashing blood-borne pathogens on the operating room floor, and must then be picked up by operating room personnel.
Then, the kick bucket must be displaced to the location where they are to be counted into bags or pockets and the person collecting the sponges must repeatedly bend over to pick up the sponges.
Thus, overall, the sponges must be subjected to a considerable amount of handling after use, with the risk of contamination of operating room personnel increasing with the amount of handling required.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a bag member for receiving used surgical sponges and a surgical sponge storage and counting system employing such bag members which eliminate or minimize the drawbacks encountered in the prior art.
A more specific object of the invention is to reduce the number of handling procedures required to transfer a used sponge from the patient to a location for final counting, containment and disposal.
Another object of the invention is to reduce the number of occasions on which a sponge will be dropped on the floor or blood from the sponge will drip on the floor of the operating room.
Another object of the invention is to reduce the physical demands imposed on operating room personnel in connection with disposal of used sponges.
Yet another specific object of the invention is to facilitate the transfer of used sponges to individual counting bags, or pockets, followed by sealing of the bags for final disposal.
The above and other objects are achieved, according to the present invention, by a bag member for receiving used surgical sponges in a surgical sponge storing system, comprising: a first sheet of flexible material forming a main bag having a periphery, and a plurality of second bag members mounted to the first sheet and forming sponge holding bags.
The objects according to the invention are further achieved by a surgical sponge storage and counting system for use in a surgical operating room, comprising: a pail; a stand mounted on wheels for permitting the stand to be rolled across an operating room floor; a pail supporting member for supporting the pail; means for mounting the pail supporting member on the stand and for adjusting the height of the pail above the floor; and a bag member as described above, receivable in the pail for containing and storing used surgical sponges.
In order to aid in the understanding of this invention, it can be stated in essentially summary form that it is directed to a sponge counting bag which is formed of front and back sheets of substantially transparent synthetic polymer composition material. The front and back sheets are closed at the bottom and side edges. The back sheet extends upward, and the front sheet is folded down at its top edge to form a cuff. The cuff is wrinkled on its free edge to permit easy opening of the bag. The sponge counting bag may have a reopenable, fold-down flap or may have a plurality of such bags arranged one above the other.
It is thus a purpose and advantage of this invention to provide a sponge counting bag which is easy to open so that sponges can be readily placed therein at the end of a surgical procedure so that they may be readily counted.
It is a further object and advantage of this invention to provide a sponge counting bag which facilitates placement of the sponges in the counting bag for subsequent counting by having a cuff thereon which is readily grasped or single-finger manipulated to pull the bag open.
It is a further purpose and advantage of this invention to provide a flap on the sponge counting bag which can releaseably close the bag.
The features of the present invention which are believed to be novel are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The present invention, both as to its organization and manner of operation, together with further objects and advantages thereof, may be best understood by reference to the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.